[P2P-F] Fwd: [Networkedlabour] Fwd: [WSF-Discuss] Fwd: Hong Kong rises, China cannot beat people down (for now), democracy + class struggle, Tutu solidarity call

[Michel Bauwens]

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Date: Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 2:52 PM
Subject: [Networkedlabour] Fwd: [WSF-Discuss] Fwd: Hong Kong rises, China
cannot beat people down (for now), democracy + class struggle, Tutu
solidarity call
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Date: 2 October 2014 08:50
Subject: [WSF-Discuss] Fwd: Hong Kong rises, China cannot beat people
down (for now), democracy + class struggle, Tutu solidarity call
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Cc: Jai Sen <jai.sen at cacim.net>


Thursday, October 2, 2014

Worlds in movement, worlds of movement…

HONG KONG NOW - please circulate widely :

A compilation and update – countesy Patrick (Bond), with thanks :

Hong-Kong : Occupy Central—What’s Next for the Democracy Movement ? A
Brief Observation on the Current Movement

AU Loong-Yu

Statement by Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions :

HKCTU strongly condemns the police crackdown of people’s protest by
Hong Kong government

* Sign the HKCTU petition

Students Unfurl the “Umbrella Revolution” in Hong Kong

Sean Starrs

Tutu calls for support of Hong Kong protesters

            JS

fwd

Begin forwarded message:

From: Patrick Bond <pbond at mail.ngo.za>
Subject: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Hong Kong rises, China cannot beat people
down (for now), democracy + class struggle, Tutu solidarity call
Date: October 2, 2014 at 8:31:55 AM GMT+5:30
To: DEBATE <debate-list at fahamu.org>,
"safis-solidarity-platform at googlegroups.com"
<safis-solidarity-platform at googlegroups.com>,
progeconnetwork at googlegroups.com, Campaign_DPE at googlegroups.com
Reply-To: pbond at mail.ngo.za


(China Labour Net editor Au Loong Yu, an occasional visitor to SA:
"student leader Alex Chow already mentioned the issue of economic
inequality. A few days ago twenty-five trade unions and civil society
groups also issued a joint statement not only demanding genuine
universal suffrage but also regulations on working hours and a
universal pension. The occupation of the last two days has also given
the general public the chance to discuss their opinions, and amongst
these one frequently hears discussions of the extreme inequality.")

Hong-Kong : Occupy Central—What’s Next for the Democracy Movement? A
Brief Observation on the Current Movement
AU Loong-Yu
1 October 2014


Monday 29th September 2014/Occupy Central Day 3 - Occupy central
continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

 I. The Situation

The general public has come out to support the students, and with
their own bodies have resisted the tear gas to defeat the offensive of
the regime of Leung Chun-ying, better known as C.Y. Leung, the Chief
Executive of the Executive Council of Hong-Kong, sparking a new
generation of people’s democracy activists. This movement has the
following characteristics:

1. The students and the public have shown that they have the ability
to think for themselves, to take bottom-up direct action, without
relying on the leaders. It is within a context where the movement
displays deep distrust of not only the Pan-Democracy parties, but also
of the Trio of three leading liberal academics and clergymen who
suggested the occupation a year earlier. Even the Hong-Kong Federation
of Students, which was for a while the vanguard of the movement, saw
its proposal to withdraw on September 28 in view of escalation of
crackdown was rejected by the masses.

2. The students and young people, whose actions have led to the
upsurge in the movement, are now the driving force of the movement,
rather than the middle-aged and middle-class Pan-Democracy supporters
whom the Trio relied on as their constituency for their occupation
plan, a fact which reflects the deep distrust towards young people and
working people toward the Trio.

3. The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) has called for
a workers’ strike and there are some responses; in addition to this
there is strong sympathy for the movement among working people. And
the occupation of main streets also makes possible a slowdown in
workplaces, which in turn allows lots of discussion among colleagues.

4. A desire for social equality has also become part of the movement.
In his speech to the student boycott on September 22, student leader
Alex Chow already mentioned the issue of economic inequality. A few
days ago twenty-five trade unions and civil society groups also issued
a joint statement not only demanding genuine universal suffrage but
also regulations on working hours and a universal pension. The
occupation of the last two days has also given the general public the
chance to discuss their opinions, and amongst these one frequently
hears discussions of the extreme inequality.

Because of this strong movement from below the C.Y. Leung government
has now been forced to stop its offensive, permitting space for the
movement to grow even larger. The issue now is how to take advantage
of the situation fully and to seek the biggest victory. It means that
we have to overcome the movement’s weaknesses:

1. The old democracy movement’s former leaders are no longer able to
lead, however the new leaderships of the new democracy movement is
still in formation. This is a danger. Although spontaneity has been a
great factor in advancing the movement, now—with all the sabotage
taking place and a crackdown quite possible sometime in the future by
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Leung government—the
movement will soon require more organising and leaderships, and I use
plural here deliberately.

2. Although the students’ organization is comparatively better, the
general public lacks the organization and networks to support each
other. This is especially so for the strike call. Although there were
some early responses to the strike call, a broad strike wave has yet
to happen. The HKCTU is not yet strong enough to fully implement the
strike call, let alone to organize the solidarity alliance now in
preparation. Strengthening movement will require great effort and also
new initiatives

 II. Aims and slogans

1. The Leung Chun-ying regime must surrender Civic Plaza and Tamar
Garden to the people and to withdraw all police from there, so that
these two places can be a focal point for the movement. If the
government does not promise this then the movement should certainly
not withdraw from the streets, and, if they do promise, then the
decision to withdraw or stay on will depend on the circumstances and
the wishes of the people.

2. The Leung Chun-ying regime and its officials must apologise.

3. The Leung Chun-ying regime must step down.

4. The National People’s Congress (NPC) resolution must be withdrawn;
genuine universal suffrage and civic nominations must be implemented.

5. Regulations on working hours, a universal pension and collective
bargaining rights must be implemented.

6. We must win regime change and the self-determination over political
reform.

 3. The Way Forward

1. Working people need more encouragement to strike. One way is to
encourage each company or unit to organise and set up a small group
for solidarity with the movement and to establish a strike committee.
Only with this foundation, is it possible to discuss the issue
seriously.

Slogan: Students and workers unite together to achieve regime change.
For self-determination over political reform!

2. Adhere to nonviolence.

3. Proposing self-determination over political reform is appropriate.
However if anyone proposes Hong Kong independence then we (the
democratic left/progressives) can respond that we cannot agree to
this, although we respect the right to express this opinion. Also it
is an issue worthy of discussion later, but not for now, or it may be
harmful to the movement.

Updated on the early morning of 30th September

Last night when I went to the scene, I found that the movement had
again expanded in scale and it was very moving. However this also
increases the risk of direct intervention by the CCP—although this
does not necessarily mean dispatching the Peoples Liberation Army
(PLA) from the outset. Nevertheless it is necessary to avoid
provocations and excesses. In the case of escalation of the crackdown
from tear gas to shooting—or even worse the mobilization of the
PLA—there is no way we can fight that, given the present level of
organisation.Therefore we should retreat from the streets when this
moment comes, but keep the strike going – no one can force working
people to work normally even with guns. In addition to this we will
need a deepening of the non-cooperative movement in all areas.

Au Loong Yu, October 1, 2014

***

Calling for international support for democracy in Hong Kong!
#DemocracyNowHK #OccupyCentral

- By 李成康 Li Shing Hong, Samuel

HONG KONG, a small dot on the map, is standing up against what is
arguably the most capable and successful authoritarian regime of our
time - the Chinese Communist Party, and its representatives in the
Hong Kong government.

For days, citizens and students with nothing more than their bodies
have been battling the city's increasingly violent and brutal police
force. Tear gas, anti-riot police and pepper spray have already been
used on defenceless students and citizens, amongst other brutal
violence. The Hong Kong Federation of Students have declared an
indefinite class boycott for all universities in Hong Kong, and the
Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions have declared an indefinite
strike across the city.

Read more

Sign the HKCTU petition here



Please show that you are on the side of all that stands for human
rights, freedom and democratic values, because in this battle between
David and Goliath, this small but defiant city cannot win without
international support. Hong Kong students, workers and people will
strive on even if it means facing the wrath of the Chinese and Hong
Kong governments. If we succeed, this will be the first truly
democratic political regime in the whole of authoritarian China. We
are making history with every step we walk.

Please walk with us.

Sign the HKCTU petition
Take a picture of yourself and your comrades with a sign expressing
solidarity with people in Hong Kong, and share it on social media
using the #DemocracyNowHK and #OccupyCentral hash tags
Share this story!

Statement by Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions

HKCTU strongly condemns the police crackdown of people’s protest by
Hong Kong government

Calling all workers in Hong Kong to participate in a general strike
tomorrow Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) strongly
condemns the police for their violent attack on unarmed students and
people.

We strongly condemn the government for suppressing the freedom of
speech and the freedom of assembly in Hong Kong. HKCTU calls for all
workers in Hong Kong to strike tomorrow, in protest of the ruling of
the National People’s Congress, as well as the brutal suppression of
peaceful protest by the Hong Kong government.

Workers and students must unite to force the totalitarian government
to hand state power back to the people. Since the peaceful assembly
outside the Government Headquarters on September 26th, thousands of
people join and support the assembly.

The ever growing number of people maintained peace and order. Yet, the
police attacked the protesters heavily with pepper spray, baton and
riot squads armed with shields and helmets, while people who only had
towels and umbrellas to protect themselves.

In face of several rounds of suppression, protesters only raised their
hands up without fighting back. In the evening of September 28th, the
police furthered their attack with several rounds of tear gas. Many
peaceful protesters were injured.

Workers must stand up against the unjust government and violent
suppression. Workers must stand up, as the totalitarian government has
to back down when all workers protest in solidarity. To defend
democracy and justice, we cannot let the students fight the
suppression alone. HKCTU hereby announces and calls all workers to
participate in a general strike tomorrow.

We demand:

Police must release the arrested protesters immediately. They must
guarantee the basic human rights of the arrested protestors during
retention.
The government and police must stop suppressing the peaceful assembly
and apologize to the people.
National People’s Congress must withdraw the ‘fake universal
suffrage’. The Hong Kong government must restart the consultation of
political reform. Workers have been demanding a fair election system
to rectify the long standing problem of the business-leaning
government. However, the ‘fake universal suffrage’ framework proposed
by NPC is merely ‘old wine in a new bottle’.
Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying must step down to bear the
responsibility of violent suppression of protest.

Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Union September 28th, 2014.

ITUC report

***

The   B u l l e t

Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 1042
October 1, 2014


Students Unfurl
the “Umbrella Revolution” in Hong Kong

Sean Starrs

The largest student demonstrations and occupations in Hong Kong's
history is currently unfurling – what is increasingly being called the
“Umbrella Revolution” in reference to the sea of umbrellas being used
as cover against both pepper-spraying riot police and the rays of the
sun (the latter a common practice in Northeast Asia). What began as a
Hong Kong-wide class boycott on Monday September 22 with around 10,000
university and college students congregating on the Chinese University
of Hong Kong campus for speeches and volunteer lectures on civil
disobedience – moving across town to a sit-in on Wednesday the 24th in
front of the main Hong Kong government buildings in the district of
Admiralty – by the night of Monday September 29 morphed into an
unprecedented occupation of four major districts in Hong Kong
involving at least 80,000 people, predominantly students. Three major
arteries running through Admiralty, Central, and parts of Wan Chai (a
roughly 2.5km by 500 meter area) – constituting the core business and
government skyscrapers in Hong Kong, and encompassing the headquarters
of the 6,000-strong People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China Hong Kong
garrison – in addition to the largest intersection in Causeway Bay
(Hong Kong's busiest shopping neighborhood) and the main thoroughfare
in Mong Kok and Jordan (Nathan Road) across the harbor in Kowloon (one
of the most densely populated districts in the world), are in complete
lock-down with multiple barricades and throngs of students blocking
all traffic.

Students, Umbrellas and Occupiers

This stunning accomplishment that has shocked everyone (including the
students themselves) follows violent police repression on Saturday and
Sunday of an intensity not seen on the streets of Hong Kong since
1967, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tried to spread the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) to the then-British colony. The
main organizer of the week-long boycott of classes, the Hong Kong
Federation of Students (HKFS), had planned on ending the strike and
sit-in in front of the government buildings on Friday evening, but
late that night some 200 or so students stormed a police line and
fence to occupy a square within the government complex. The police
reacted violently with batons and pepper spray, making over 70
arrests, including one of the most high profile student leaders, 17
year-old Joshua Wong, co-founder of the mostly high school student
group Scholarism. As news of the violent police repression swiftly
spread, masses of students and other supporters poured into the whole
area, eventually blocking major roads (on Monday afternoon there were
still some abandoned BMWs and public buses in the middle of the road
surrounded by throngs of students).

On Saturday, the three co-founders of the group Occupy Central with
Love and Peace announced the commencement of Occupy Central, moved
forward from its initial start-date of Wednesday October 1 (a public
holiday in China, including Hong Kong, commemorating the 65th
anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic). Two professors
and a clergyman initiated plans in January 2013 to occupy what is now
a comparatively tiny section of Central, the downtown core of Hong
Kong. Some students accused the co-founders of Occupy Central of
opportunism and hijacking the student-initiated mass sit-in, but
others welcomed the extra support. By Monday the three co-founders
moved out of the main government building area, with at least one
moving to the occupation in Kowloon across the harbor – hence the
epicenter of Admiralty remains almost entirely student-driven.

On Monday scores of businesses could not open due to being in the
occupied zones, and over 200 public transportation lines were either
cancelled or heavily diverted, the former including the iconic
double-decker trams. According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority
(the territory's de facto central bank), “23 banks including HSBC and
Standard Chartered had closed a total of 44 branches, offices and cash
machines.” Both the Hong Kong dollar and the Hang Seng stock index
fell on Monday morning. Hong Kong air and noise pollution plummeted
from the absence of traffic, with eerie scenes of major thoroughfares
several blocks from the epicenter being virtually empty on Monday
afternoon (before being filled again with students and supporters by
Monday evening). The City Hall was forced to shut down for the first
time since Typhoon Wanda in 1962.

Screw Us and We Multiply

In the aftermath of Sunday's violent police repression of peaceful and
unarmed students (many of them teenagers) – according to the police
themselves firing tear gas 87 times in nine separate areas – support
has been broadening and deepening, with thousands more on the streets
from the after-work crowd on Monday and Tuesday. The Confederation of
Trade Unions and the Professional Teachers Union both called on its
members to strike in support of the students. At least 1,000 social
workers, high school and university teachers joined the strike, as
well as pupils from at least 31 schools. HKFS extended the student
class boycott indefinitely. The Chairperson of Swire Beverages
Employees General Union, distributor of Coca Cola in Hong Kong,
announced to cheering students in Admiralty that more than 200 workers
joined the strike, while 100 more reduced their hours. There were also
reports of some taxi drivers striking. Even certain chief executives
supported the strike, with for example CEO Spencer Wong of the McCann
advertising firm informing employees: “It's up to you whether you come
to work of [sic] not. The company will not punish anyone who supports
something more important than work.” This is a sharp turnaround from
July when the Big Four global accounting firms published a joint
warning against Occupy Central of impending chaos if they had their
way. A number of legislators, especially from the Civic and Democratic
Parties, have also expressed support, with some even being arrested on
Saturday and Sunday.

But the vast majority of the initiative, leadership, and involvement
remains with the students, many of them protesting for the first time.
There is a constant stream of supplies pouring into the occupied
zones, from water bottles to sodium chloride (first-aid against tear
gas) and surgical masks to food and sleeping mats. Support and
donations arrive from all walks of life and ages, from a pre-teen
helping with cleanup to a 92 year-old lady chanting on the frontlines.
There is no centralized chain of command, with the occupations now far
beyond the control of either the leadership of the HKFS or Occupy
Central with Peace and Love, with many spontaneous actions sprouting
across the occupied zones (such as small groups bringing large objects
from afar to construct more and increasingly elaborate barricades
along the streets). Perhaps most significantly, even more students
poured onto the streets after the leadership of HKFS and Occupy
Central on Sunday night urged students to return home, as rumors
swirled of the impending use of rubber bullets by riot police and
increasing fears of a Tiananmen Square-like crack-down in which at
least 2,600 students were massacred in 1989 (while many riot police
brandished military-style rifles before being taken off the streets by
Monday afternoon, thankfully none were used).

The core demand is for universal suffrage to decide Hong Kong's Chief
Executive Officer (what is essentially its mayor), rather than the
changes proposed by Beijing on August 29th that would render it
impossible for any anti-CCP candidate to run for office. From Monday
morning, another demand being increasingly shouted is for the current
Chief Executive C.Y. Leung to step down, and initiate a new reform
proposal committee.

What is clear is that the ramped up police repression on Sunday failed
spectacularly, echoing a sign popular in Madison, Wisconsin in spring
2011: “Screw us and we multiply.” There was widespread outrage over
the violent police tactics on unarmed, overwhelmingly peaceful and
non-aggressive students, many of them simply quietly sitting around.
Yet, as mentioned above, the police fired tear gas 87 times in nine
separate areas, according to their own estimate. Incidentally, the
stockpile and use of tear gas is banned by the 1993 UN Chemical
Weapons Convention, of which China is a signatory. Apart from using
tear gas against South Korean farmers during the 2005 WTO protests,
the streets of Hong Kong have not seen this chemical weapon since
1967.

The riot police were formally taken off the streets by noon Monday,
officially because the “illegal protesters” have “mostly calmed down.”
In reality, the riot police were the ones that calmed down once they
realized they could not defeat the students. During the climax of
repression on Sunday night, I was in one area that was tear gassed
around 4-5 times (each barrage with multiple canisters) in only two
hours. The police formed two lines and fired tear gas in order to
advance toward the epicenter in Admiralty, after which most of the
crowd would flee and then quickly regroup, surrounding the police on
both sides with hands in the air to show non-violent intent.

On another note, while unprecedented for Hong Kong, the violent police
repression was still relatively tame compared to the demeanor,
equipment, and tactics now often employed by the heavily militarized
police in North America, from the 2010 Toronto G20 protests to
Ferguson, Missouri last month. By Monday afternoon, there was only a
heavy police presence around the government buildings, the PLA HQ, and
the police HQ (all within a few blocks of each other). Vast areas had
no police presence at all, of which many students took ample
advantage, extending the barricades several hundred meters to the
five-star Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the west, into the heart of the
poshest shopping district of flagship luxury brands (a significant
advancement of occupied territory from Sunday night).

The expanding Umbrella Revolution is no doubt a momentous conjuncture
for Hong Kong, and possibly for China itself. All local news outlets
are of course doing live and ongoing coverage, but this has also
received much international attention. The New York Times, Financial
Times, Wall Street Journal, and others have their Asia headquarters in
Hong Kong, and all have given this their front page. There also happen
to be a number of veteran China reporters that have been deported from
the Mainland in the past year or two (especially from Bloomberg and
the New York Times), and most have relocated to Hong Kong – from where
they are all too happy to write less than enthusiastically on the CCP
and the heavy-handed and disproportionate repression of the Hong Kong
police. A common chant heard on the streets is “the world is
watching.”

Nothing short of the future of Hong Kong is at stake. Officially, Deng
Xiaoping's promise of “one country, two systems” is supposed to last
until 2047 (half a century after the 1997 handover), but many in Hong
Kong fear that Beijing is gradually moving toward “one country” much
sooner. The CCP's attempt to change the security law in 2003 and
standardize the education system to emphasize “love of China” in 2012
were both defeated due to hundreds of thousands taking to the streets.
The latter incident is the context in which Joshua Wong, then 14 years
old, co-founded Scholarism to protest Beijing's attempted interference
in Hong Kong's school curriculum.

But this time is different. We are currently in the midst of by far
Hong Kong's largest civil disobedience ever. Students have pledged to
maintain the occupied zones, vastly larger than Occupy Wall Street or
any of its global spawns ever were, until Beijing reneges on its
August 29th proposal and grants Hong Kong universal suffrage. Students
are so far incredibly successful, unimaginably more than anyone could
have predicted even on Sunday morning. Perhaps most importantly,
momentum is far greater on the side of the students, as we begin two
Chinese public holidays (including in Hong Kong), tomorrow and
Thursday. Whatever the eventual outcome, at the very minimum the
Umbrella Revolution will have politicized a new generation of Hong
Kongers. Of course, this doesn't mean everyone will be radicalized, as
for example numerous veterans of 1989 Tiananmen Square after being
exiled to the West became investment bankers or Silicon Valley
capitalists. Nevertheless, others became critical scholars or
full-time activists, perhaps most prominently Han Dongfang, the number
one most wanted man by the CCP in the aftermath of June 4, 1989, who
gave himself up and was tortured for 22 months in a Chinese prison,
and subsequently exiled to Hong Kong where in 1994 he founded China
Labour Bulletin, which is still going strong today.

Students and Workers Stand up, Fight Back

Moreover, by far the largest act of civil disobedience in Hong Kong
history comes at a very awkward time for the Chinese Communist Party,
which at least partly explains the unprecedented and swift but
spectacularly failed attempt by the Hong Kong Police to violently
repress the students and prevent their momentum from growing. With
President Xi Jinping's “anti-corruption campaign” so far targeting
only his rival factions, the CCP is currently in the midst of the one
of the most serious tests to its unity in decades. More broadly
vis-à-vis the Chinese people, the CCP is increasingly using
nationalism and China's “glorious” past, including reviving
Confucianism, once reviled by the CCP as a product of feudal and
patriarchal authoritarianism, in order to replace “communist”
ideology. Indeed, the CCP announced that class struggle was officially
over in China, and therefore removed the right to strike from the
constitution in 1982. Yet, since especially the Nanhai Honda strike in
2010, there have been hundreds if not thousands of increasingly daring
strikes across China, the largest of which was earlier this year when
40,000 workers at a Dongguan shoe factory went on strike, less than
100km north of Hong Kong. And certainly after 1989, it is clear that
the tenets of freedom of assembly and speech do not jive well with
this CCP hegemonic project, yet are very dear to the hearts of many
Hong Kongers. At the time of the handover, Hong Kong's GDP accounted
for almost a fifth of China's, yet today it is only 3 per cent. The
central government in Beijing will likely do much in its now
considerable imbalance of power to prevent any demonstration effect in
Hong Kong that might spread to the Mainland. And there is certainly
the basis for an Occupy Shenzhen and others across China, as many
grievances range from high labour exploitation to severe air
pollution, from food safety scandals to rural and urban land seizures,
from widespread corruption to increasing violent crime and one of the
highest inequality rates in the world.

Hence, especially over the past ten years, burgeoning social unrest in
China seems to be increasingly rattling the upper echelons of the CCP.
Since 2009 China spends more on domestic security than external
military defense. And the CCP has reacted to the Umbrella Revolution
with record Internet censorship on the Mainland, banning many search
words such as “Class boycott,” “Occupy Central,” “Hong Kong police,”
and “Hong Kong tear gas,” while deleting relevant posts on Weibo,
China's Twitter-like social network, including all posts with the
hashtag #HongKong. Meanwhile, for the first time, China completely
blocked Instagram on Sunday morning, as pictures from Hong Kong
started to go viral around the Mainland. There is already contagion
internationally, as hundreds of supporters in Taiwan (a country with
its own misgivings concerning Beijing's increasing encroachment, as
witnessed by its “Sunflower movement” earlier this year when students
occupied the Taiwanese parliament) occupied the lobby of the Hong Kong
Trade Office. Solidarity demonstrations are also planned across the
world over the next couple days, from Paris to Sydney, from San
Francisco to Vancouver and Toronto. China, of course, has a massive
diaspora abroad, much of which is still deeply connected with the
Mainland (as well as Hong Kong).

But back in “Asia's world city,” Beijing is in a real damned if they
do, damned if they don't situation. Granting universal suffrage to
Hong Kong would be a significant setback for the authority of the CCP,
with highly uncertain consequences both in Hong Kong and the Mainland
concerning the CCP's paramount goal: the longevity of its power. But
at least at the time of writing, tens of thousands of students and
their supporters remain more entrenched in the three main occupied
zones than on Sunday. Seventeen year-old Joshua Wong of Scholarism has
said that most do not expect Beijing to back down, but that was last
week. Similarly, many a week ago expected Occupy Central to fail in
occupying only a tiny square in Central; even the co-founders did not
dare to dream of maintaining a complete lock-down of vast swathes of
Hong Kong spanning three of its most important neighborhoods.

As of Tuesday night Hong Kong time, the possibility of what would be
an historic retreat by the Chinese Communist Party with unknown
consequences is at least slightly higher than it was only a few days
ago. And very few seriously give any likelihood to a bloodbath on the
scale of the Tiananmen Square massacre. There would simply be too big
a risk that Hong Kong would be rendered utterly ungovernable if such a
tragedy occurred. Beijing also signaled on Sunday that it would not
intervene, and praised the Hong Kong police for handling the situation
well. That was, however, before the massive student success and
advancements on Monday that have continued into Tuesday. If the
student-led occupations cannot be defeated soon, each day that goes by
increases the risks for Beijing of contagion. In the immediate
short-term, the students have this Wednesday and Thursday on their
side, as both are public holidays in China, including Hong Kong. The
annual fireworks celebrating the coming to power of the CCP on October
1, 1949, usually scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled by the Hong
Kong government. An average 800,000 Mainlanders cross the border into
Hong Kong every day, and this will see a sizable increase tomorrow and
Thursday due to the national holidays.

One problem, however, is that the vast majority of students have very
little political experience, let alone an awareness of the
incompatibility of capitalism and democracy, not to mention the
environment. Some make the connection between increasing inequality in
Hong Kong, with universal suffrage as a means to counter the power of
tycoons, the majority of whom are pro-Beijing and of course favour the
status quo. But I have argued in an opinion piece that will be
published by Hong Kong's main English-language newspaper, the South
China Morning Post, that too few discuss whether political democracy
is possible without economic democracy. Regardless, this is certainly
a giant first step in politicizing a new generation of Hong Kongers, a
populace more known for shopping in gleaming malls rather than
occupying vast swathes of the third most important financial center in
the world. Also, from my own very limited one-month experience so far
teaching at City University of Hong Kong, many students are
extraordinarily receptive to criticism of capitalism at large, more so
than my former students at York University in Toronto.

The Umbrella Revolution and the Global Cycle of Protest

As should be clear, the Umbrella Revolution is shaped by specific
local conditions in Hong Kong. With that said, it must be placed in
the broader context of occupations and popular uprisings the world
over that have been inspired by the Arab Spring, especially the
occupation of Tahrir Square in early 2011. The occupation of Tahrir
Square inspired the occupation of the State Capitol building in
Madison, Wisconsin and the indignados of Madrid, Spain – both of which
inspired Occupy Wall Street in September 2011 and the subsequent
blossoming of Occupies around the world, including the original Occupy
Central, one of the longest-lasting camps, until September 2012. And
as the Umbrella Revolution and other recent protests around the world
reveal, the conditions continue to be ripe for politicizing the masses
of especially young people for the first time (as well as occasionally
breathing fresh air into the spirits of 1968 Paris and 1999 Seattle
veterans, among others). The ranks of those receptive to radical
system change around the world continues to swell as the twenty-first
century progresses, even if some also drop out and/or need greater
encouragement. In any case, in regard to the largest civil
disobedience ever in Hong Kong, anyone's crystal ball as to how this
will end is as uncertain as anyone else's. What is certain, however,
is that the humble umbrella will forever have a new significance in
Hong Kong: to protect not only from rain and shine, but also from the
instruments of state repression. •

Sean Starrs is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the
City University of Hong Kong and received his Ph.D. in June 2014 at
York University, Toronto. I thank Jordy Cummings for encouraging me to
write this.

&&&




***

Tutu calls for support of Hong Kong protesters

Tutu says he salutes the courage of the Hong Kong citizens who have
taken part in mass demonstrations.


Eyewitness News & Reuters | about 12 hours ago

CAPE TOWN - Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has called on all who
believe in democracy to support the people of Hong Kong.

There was little sign of momentum flagging on the fifth day of the
mass campaign, whose aim has been to occupy sections of the city and
express fury at a Chinese decision to limit voters’ choices in a 2017
leadership election.

In a statement, Tutu says he salutes the courage of the hundreds of
thousands of Hong Kong citizens who have taken part in mass
demonstrations in recent days.

Many had feared police would use force to move crowds before
Wednesday’s start to celebrations marking the anniversary of the
Communist Party's foundation of the People’s Republic of China in
1949. Those fears proved unfounded.

The crowds have brought large sections of the Asian financial hub to a
standstill, disrupting businesses from banks to jewellers. Overnight
thunderstorms failed to dampen spirits and the protesters woke to blue
skies on Wednesday.

Riot police had used tear gas, pepper spray and baton charges at the
weekend to try to quell the unrest but tensions have eased since then
as both sides appeared prepared to wait it out, at least for now.

Protests spread from four main areas to Tsim Sha Tsui, a shopping area
popular with mainland Chinese visitors. It would usually do roaring
trade during the annual National Day holiday.

Underlining nervousness among some activists that provocation on
National Day could spark violence, protest leaders urged crowds not to
disturb the flag-raising ceremony on the Victoria Harbour waterfront
on Wednesday morning.

Proceedings went ahead peacefully, although scores of students who
ringed the ceremony at Bauhinia Square overlooking Hong Kong harbour
booed as the national anthem was played.

A beaming Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, who was appointed
by Beijing, shook hands with supporters waving the Chinese flag even
as protesters who want him to stand down chanted: “We want real
democracy”.

“We hope that all sectors of the community will work with the
government in a peaceful, lawful, rational and pragmatic manner ...
and make a big step forward in our constitutional development,” Leung
said in a speech.

The Hong Kong and Chinese flags billowed in the wind at the completion
of the ceremony but one of the main protest groups said they marked
the occasion “with a heavy heart”.

“We are not celebrating the 65th anniversary of China. With the
present political turmoil in Hong Kong and the continued persecution
of human rights activists in China, I think today is not a day for
celebrations but rather a day of sadness,” said Oscar Lai, a spokesman
for the student group Scholarism.

SOLIDARITY

Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered outside luxury stores and set
up makeshift barricades from the early hours of Wednesday in
anticipation of possible clashes. As in most parts of Hong Kong, the
police presence was small.

Protesters have set up supply stations with water bottles, fruit,
crackers, disposable raincoats, towels, goggles, face masks and tents.

M. Lau, a 56-year-old retiree, said he had taken to the streets of
Hong Kong to protest in the 1980s and wanted to do so again in a show
of solidarity with a movement that has been led by students as well as
more established activists.

The protests are the worst in Hong Kong since China resumed its rule
of the former British colony in 1997. They also represent one of the
biggest political challenges for Beijing since it violently crushed
pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Cracking down too hard could shake confidence in market-driven Hong
Kong, which has a separate legal system from the rest of China. Not
reacting firmly enough, however, could embolden dissidents on the
mainland.

China rules Hong Kong under a “one country, two systems” formula that
accords it some autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China,
with universal suffrage an eventual goal.

However, protesters reacted angrily when Beijing decreed on 31 August
that it would vet candidates wishing to run for Hong Kong’s
leadership.

Leung has said Beijing would not back down in the face of protests and
that Hong Kong police would be able to maintain security without help
from People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops from the mainland.

CENSORSHIP

Communist Party leaders in Beijing worry that calls for democracy
could spread to the mainland, and have been aggressively censoring
news and social media comments about the Hong Kong demonstrations.

Cybersecurity researchers in the United States said they had found a
computer virus that spies on Apple Inc.’s iOS operating system for
iPhones and iPads that they believe is targeting the protesters in
Hong Kong.

Researchers from Lacoon Mobile Security said the code used to control
the server was written in Chinese by “really sophisticated guys”.

Hong Kong shares fell to a three-month low on Tuesday, registering
their biggest monthly fall since May 2012. Markets are closed on
Wednesday and Thursday for the holidays.

The city’s benchmark index has fallen 7.3 percent over the past month,
and there are few indications that the protests are likely to end any
time soon.

Mainland Chinese visiting Hong Kong had differing views on the
demonstrations, being staged under the “Occupy” banner.

A woman surnamed Lin, from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen,
however said the protesters’ demands for a democratic election were
“disrespectful to the mainland”.

***

Hong Kong’s Protesters Say Peaceful Resistance Is Key

By Lucy Westcott
Filed: 9/29/14 at 10:24 PM  | Updated: 9/29/14 at 10:59 PM

Filed Under: World, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Protests, Occupy Central,
Occupy Central with Peace and Love

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests have seen tens of thousands of
demonstrators take to the streets to demand universal suffrage from
the Chinese government.

What started as a student-led campaign for democracy last week evolved
into a standoff with police, who lobbed tear gas at the growing crowds
and made arrests Sunday and Monday. But one group taking part in the
movement says protesters are focused on maintaining a “peaceful
resistance.”

“We are seriously upholding the principle of nonviolence,” Chan
Kin-man, co-founder of democracy group Occupy Central with Love and
Peace (OCLP) and a professor of sociology at the Chinese University of
Hong Kong tells Newsweek.



“We are fighting a non-democratic regime, we don’t have as many
resources as them, we don’t have weapons,” said Chan. “The only thing
we rely on is our spirit. We spend a lot of time explaining the
importance of having a movement that can express our love to the
community,” he said.


OCLP started in March 2013 as a way to put pressure on the governments
of Beijing and Hong Kong to allow fair and open elections in Hong
Kong. Chan said the group is inspired by other peaceful movements that
have fought “against systems, not individuals,” he said, speaking from
a square next to the central government office in Hong Kong on Monday,
where protests were continuing.

The protests partly have their roots in an unofficial referendum
earlier this summer which called on Beijing to allow for free
elections in which Hong Kong residents could nominate their own
candidates for local government positions. Beijing has said voters can
choose from a list of pre-determined candidates.

Chan compared the 2017 elections to an election in authoritarian
regimes such as North Korea or Iran. “All the candidates have to be
screened by Beijing before they’re put forward,” Chan said of the
movement's impetus. “As an international city we don’t think this is
acceptable,” he said. “We want a genuine universal suffrage by the end
of 2017.”

“We learned from examples like Gandhi in 1940s and Martin Luther King
in the 1960s,” said Chan. “[We were] also inspired by Nelson Mandela
in fighting for democracy.”


Pro-Democracy Protesters Face Police in Hong Kong
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, many of them students, faced
tear gas and arrests as they took to the streets in massive numbers to
call on China to allow free elections for territory’s next leader
VIEW GALLERY

The movement has been dubbed the “umbrella revolution” by some, with
protesters using umbrellas to protect themselves from tear gas and the
sun.

The protests saw Hong Kong police firing tear gas into crowds for the
first time in nearly a decade, since protests erupted outside the 2005
World Trade Organization talks, The Telegraph reports. The action has
brought “shame” to the city, said Anson Chan, former chief secretary
of Hong Kong said in a statement.

“What we need now is leadership and accountability, not violence and
repression,” the statement read.

Photos and videos with the hashtag OccupyCentral have been widely
shared over social media, despite the Chinese government’s decision to
block Instagram on Sunday. Some praised protesters for organizing
supplies, handing out water and tidying up after themselves.


Chan said this were examples of the movement’s strategy of nonviolence.

Protests are expected to continue through October 1, which is China’s
National Day, according to local media.

"We hope that Hong Kong people can hang on and occupy the several
spots that we are now having our demonstrations [until] at least
October 1…to show our dignity and our determination to fight for
democracy," Chan told local media on Monday.

***

Hong Kong leader believes protests could last weeks

Students spearheading the protest movement ratcheted up pressure on
Leung Chun-ying.


Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Picture: Bridgette Hall.
Reuters | about 9 hours ago

HONG KONG - Hong Kong authorities will not immediately move to clear
tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters occupying large areas of
the city, and will let them stay for weeks if need be, a source with
ties to leader Leung Chun-ying said on Wednesday.

In contrast, students spearheading the protest movement ratcheted up
pressure on Leung, saying they would occupy more government buildings
unless the Beijing-backed chief executive stepped down by Thursday
night.

Hong Kong protesters are angry about China's decision to limit voters'
choices in a 2017 leadership election, and, in a major challenge to
Beijing's authority in Hong Kong and beyond, have brought much of the
financial hub to a standstill.

As the mass action approached its sixth day on Wednesday evening, the
number of people on the streets remained high.

Fears among demonstrators that police might try to remove them
forcibly ahead of the National Day holiday marking the establishment
of the People's Republic of China in 1949 proved unfounded, and the
atmosphere was calm but defiant.

Hong Kong student leader Lester Shum issued an ultimatum to Leung:
step down or else face wider protests.

"We will escalate the action if CY Leung doesn't resign by tonight or
tomorrow night. We will occupy more government facilities and
offices," he told protesters.

"I believe the government is trying to buy more time. They want to use
tactics such as sending some people to create chaos so that they would
have a good reason to disperse the crowd."

Riot police had used tear gas, pepper spray and baton charges at the
weekend to try to quell the unrest, but tensions have eased since then
as both sides appeared ready to wait it out, at least for now.

Protesters have dug in, setting up supply stations with water bottles,
fruit, disposable raincoats, towels, goggles, face masks and tents.

Leung has said Beijing would not back down and that Hong Kong police
would be able to maintain security without help from People's
Liberation Army troops from the mainland.

According to a government source with ties to Leung, the chief
executive appeared ready to allow the anger to subside, and would only
intervene if there was looting or violence.

"Unless there's some chaotic situation, we won't send in riot police
... We hope this doesn't happen," the source said. "We have to deal
with it peacefully, even if it lasts weeks or months."

Leung could not be immediately reached for comment.
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